To make a long story short: I recently added a yellow tang and blue hippo tang to my 75. Both fish were relatively small and were doing well. I also happen to have live rock, soft corals, and several smaller reef fish. I decided to add Selcon to the tank as I heard that it worked well in preventing HLLE in tangs. While I was doing this I started to use filtered tap water to top off after evaporation. The filter is the cheepest one out there but seems to make RO water. I brought the top off water and sea water in to get checked and it looked great per the local fish store. SO, to the crash, I added the Selcon and some top off water and that day the tank crashed (6 fish died including one yellow tang, 2 serpent star fish, snails, one soft coral & the rest of them closed off). I did about a 25 gallon water change & would like to add tangs again but I am afraid of this happening again as the reason is not yet uncovered. I have 5 other fish that are doing well that made it through the crash. I heard the selcon could have been rancid but I am not sure if that is it. Any thoughts?
tang help! HLLE
- Thread starter trevbo44
- Start date
I'd look elsewhere, I've dosed Selcon daily since the product first came out with zero issues. What exactly does your water test at (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, Ph)? Testing the makeup water was a good idea, but you need to test the existing water in the tank before you add anything else IMO. It sounds like you a larger bioload in that tank, and something dying off that you didn't notice could have sparked off a chain reaction.
Random thoughts: describe what happened in the crash...was the water cloudy? Were the fish gasping or just dead? What was the temp in the tank? No one sprayed insectcide in the house? The SG at the time? Anything else you can think of. All these details might help to come up with an answer.
Random thoughts: describe what happened in the crash...was the water cloudy? Were the fish gasping or just dead? What was the temp in the tank? No one sprayed insectcide in the house? The SG at the time? Anything else you can think of. All these details might help to come up with an answer.
Tell us more about your tank, what were the readings? When was it set up? What kinda of RO unit is it you are using? With selcon I use it ona regular basis, I soak the fish food in it and then feed to the fish though not add it directly to the tank. Either way i doubt it would crash a tank.
HLLE is nothing but a blanket term for a condition that could have multiple causes, much in the same way a zit can have different causes 
it's determining the actual cause first, and then correcting that, that's the tricky part
most of the time it's NOT a diet issue :idea:
it's determining the actual cause first, and then correcting that, that's the tricky part
most of the time it's NOT a diet issue :idea:
Thanks for the reply. Here are the specifics:
Ammonia o ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0-10 ppm
Phospate 0 ppm
pH 8.0
temp 78 degrees.
The salinity flucutates a bit as there is still an evaporation/top off issue. It goes from 1.019 to 1.023.
The tank is looking some what better. The remaining fish seem shocked but are eating well and swimming, but they are hiding mostly in the back of the tank behind some rock. I have not had any other die-off except for some snails and a emerald crab. The soft corals are also opening and coming back, shedding the dead parts. When the initial fish died they were breathing hard and lying on their sides slightly curled.
Ammonia o ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0-10 ppm
Phospate 0 ppm
pH 8.0
temp 78 degrees.
The salinity flucutates a bit as there is still an evaporation/top off issue. It goes from 1.019 to 1.023.
The tank is looking some what better. The remaining fish seem shocked but are eating well and swimming, but they are hiding mostly in the back of the tank behind some rock. I have not had any other die-off except for some snails and a emerald crab. The soft corals are also opening and coming back, shedding the dead parts. When the initial fish died they were breathing hard and lying on their sides slightly curled.
In that case, you have 2 options..trevbo44":31q5coyu said:
1) Build a stand or platform of some sort to place your makeup water container higher than your tank.
2) Look into buying a peristaltic dosing pump to pump water up into the tank.
If you're just dumping fresh makeup water directly into the tank, you're pretty much asking for trouble. (Sorry to be blunt, but its true..)
If your LFS can't do this for you, find another LFS if possible..trevbo44":31q5coyu said:
If you'd like to test it yourself, google up "TDS meter" and you're sure to find quite a number of vendors who'd like to sell you one. - I did a quick check on Premium Aquatics website and they've got one for under $20. You might need to splurge once a year or so on a $2 packet of calibration fluid and maybe batteries every handful of years. - I've had mine about 6 years now and not had to do either. (My model is out of production now though, go figure!)
uh, how? Are you talking auto topoff? I'm going to eventually get a float switch / solenoid setup for my RO/DI, but in the meantime a $5 auto top off would be mighty fine! I was going to use a $20 Kent float valve in the meantime, but that's $20 I'd rather not spend if at all possible.Lawdawg":33r65383 said:
not quite a fancy auto topoff but its easy to ghetto one together that will work.jandree22":31lsq9cj said:
posting from me phone so excuse any typos. get an airline control kit from the LFS. The kits have single air valves, 't's and suction cups. find a container that hold enough water for what you need, stick a suction cup on the wall low towrds the bottom. cut airline long enough to run to sump or wherever, and put the inline air valve on one end stick the other through the suction cup...that's it. get the flow started by suction and adjust the valve to drip as slow as you want.
I use the same setup for a drip acclimation system for livestock with great sucess. Cheap, and I always have the parts laying around. Now I have used a similar system for Kalkwasser, but I used a plastic coffee can and a piece of the small diameter rigid tubing used to hold airstones in the lift tube of an UG filter. I popped a hole in the lid, threaded the tube into it and siliconed it in place, leaving it an inch or so off the bottom so it wouldn't suck up the precipitate off the bottom and used airline and an air contol valve for the rest.
of course, I never tried suction starting the Kalkwasser, I'd fill the line with water (valve closed) then invert the lid into the container then open the valve. As long as the container was higer than the tank it flowed nicely. It worked pretty well, and once a week I'd soak the arline control valve in a little white vinegar to get the gack off it and it was good to go.
of course, I never tried suction starting the Kalkwasser, I'd fill the line with water (valve closed) then invert the lid into the container then open the valve. As long as the container was higer than the tank it flowed nicely. It worked pretty well, and once a week I'd soak the arline control valve in a little white vinegar to get the gack off it and it was good to go.anyone who can't manage to keep sg at even the proper level, let alone let swing as wildly as mentioned above-shouldn't even be keeping fish
how would you feel if someone changed the density of the air you breathe all the time ? :idea:
a simple check each morning/evening with topoffs daily make it all a non-issue
why on earth are you keeping INVERTS/CORALS at .023???!!!!! the ocean isn't 1.023 :idea:
my honest recommendation is to do a boatload of reading/asking questions before even thinking of purchasing one more animal for your tank-right now it seems as if you went ahead without doing ANY proper research, just set up a tank, and threw stuff in-not only a sure fire recipe for failure-but also akin to 'criminal negligence leading to animal cruelty' for your charges
sorry for the harshness-but i've seen too many people start this hobby in pure ignorance to have much sympathy for them when they then run into 'trouble'
huh ? is it an ro, or isn't it ? :roll:
how would you feel if someone changed the density of the air you breathe all the time ? :idea:
a simple check each morning/evening with topoffs daily make it all a non-issue
why on earth are you keeping INVERTS/CORALS at .023???!!!!! the ocean isn't 1.023 :idea:
my honest recommendation is to do a boatload of reading/asking questions before even thinking of purchasing one more animal for your tank-right now it seems as if you went ahead without doing ANY proper research, just set up a tank, and threw stuff in-not only a sure fire recipe for failure-but also akin to 'criminal negligence leading to animal cruelty' for your charges
sorry for the harshness-but i've seen too many people start this hobby in pure ignorance to have much sympathy for them when they then run into 'trouble'
huh ? is it an ro, or isn't it ? :roll:
trevbo44":2q6dd9h6 said:
your only dilemna is laziness-how on earth is not having a sump preventing you from keeping sg stable at 1.025 ? I have a tank/sump with a net gallonage of maybe 35 gallons, that loses easily a gallon and a half of water a day (every 24 hrs) just from evap, (fans are on the system 24/7) and i maintain it with less than 1/2 a point fluctuation daily-all i do is actually watch the sg and topoff religiously every morning and evening
to say that not having a sump is even a small part of why you're having sg issues is ludicrous-if anything, adding a sump will INCREASE your evap rate-NOT lower it :idea:
Maybe reading the hydrometer wrong. I use a refractormeter now, but I remember from my swing arm days if you didnt make sure to tap it to release any small bubbles from the arm the reading would be out of wack.
Trev, link us the RO unit you are using.
I still think, as I stated in other threads of yours a 75 is a bit tight for most tanks, a kole is your best bet since it is a smaller tang. Seems you are set on tangs, but give it some time. I dont want you to be put off from RDO, we are a great group here, just study up.
Trev, link us the RO unit you are using.
I still think, as I stated in other threads of yours a 75 is a bit tight for most tanks, a kole is your best bet since it is a smaller tang. Seems you are set on tangs, but give it some time. I dont want you to be put off from RDO, we are a great group here, just study up.
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
